Pratt County
KSGenWeb
Pratt County, in the south central part of the state, is the second county from
the southern line of the state and the seventh from the west line. It is bounded
on the north by Stafford county; on the east by Reno and Kingman; on the south
by Barber, and on the west by Kiowa and Edwards. It was created in 1867 and
named for Caleb Pratt, of the First Kansas infantry. The boundaries fixed at
that time were as follows: "Commencing where the east line of range 11 west
intersects the 5th standard parallel; thence south to the 6th standard parallel;
thence west to the east line of range 16 west; thence north to the 5th standard
parallel; thence east to the place of beginning."
The east and west
boundaries have not been changed, but the north and south lines have both been
moved one tier of townships to the north. Pratt was one of the counties which
experienced a fake organization before it had a single inhabitant. In 1873 a
party of men from Hutchinson accomplished a complete organization of the county,
bonds were issued and a nonentity elected to the legislature. The organization
was never recognized, and as the first settler did not come until the fall of
that year it was 1879 before there were sufficient inhabitants to organize. The
first actual settler was A. J. Johnson, who located in the vicinity of
Springvale. He was followed by J. W. Black and A. Kelly, who came to the same
neighborhood, and I. M. Powell came in 1875. These men all brought their
families, except Kelly.
One of the noted characters of the early times
was "Skunk" Johnson, who in 1874 selected a spot at the headwaters of the
Ninnescah river, where he made a dugout, which became known as "Skunk" Johnson's
cave and was for a long time one of the curiosities of the county. At one time
Johnson was besieged by the Indians in this cave for 15 days, during which time
he killed several of their number. It was said that during the seige he
subsisted on skunks. After Johnson left it was a favorite camping place for
freighters.
There were a few settlers in 1876, but in 1877 over 100
families came, many of them from Iowa. The county was attached to Reno that year
as a municipal township. The bogus organization was set aside in the fall of
1878, and in the spring of 1879 the citizens petitioned the governor for
organization. A census taker was appointed and upon receiving the returns Gov.
St. John issued a proclamation organizing Pratt county, with Iuka as the
temporary county seat and the following temporary officers: County clerk, L. C.
Thompson; commissioners, John Sillin, Thomas Goodwin and L. H. Naron. The
election was held on Sept. 2nd, when the following officers were elected: County
clerk, L. C. Thompson; clerk of the district court, Samuel Brumsey; probate
judge, James Neely; treasurer, R. T. Peak; sheriff, Samuel McAvoy; county
attorney, M. G. Barney; superintendent of public instruction, A. H. Hubbs;
register of deeds, Phillip Haines; surveyor, J. W. Ellis; coroner, P. Small;
commissioners, John Sillin, L. H. Naron and Thomas Goodwin. For county seat
there were three candidates, Saratoga, Iuka and Anderson. In the count the
commissioners threw out three townships on account of irregularities. This gave
the election to Iuka, but caused so much dissatisfaction that a recount was
taken, including the votes previously thrown out. No candidate then had the
majority and a new election was ordered. Anderson withdrew. The election was
held Aug. 19, 1880. An attempt on the part of Saratoga to buy votes became
public before the election, Iuka received an overwhelming majority and was
declared the permanent county seat.
The next year some of the county
officials were found guilty of swindling the county by issuing scrip illegally,
in the two years after the county was organized they had taken nearly $75,000 or
about $40 for every man, woman and child in the county. They were prosecuted and
new officers elected. In the fall of 1885 there was another county seat
election. The candidates were Iuka, Saratoga and Pratt. It was one of the most
bitterly contested county seat elections ever held in the state. Saratoga had
546 votes and Pratt 324. As the total number of voters at Saratoga was but 200
fraud was charged, the commissioners sustained the charges and declared Pratt
the county seat. The matter was taken into the courts, and pending the decision
the feeling ran high. The Saratoga and Pratt partisans were all armed and
trouble was hourly expected. The Pratt men went to Iuka and forcibly removed the
county records. On the way back they were attacked by the Saratoga men, who
succeeded in capturing the treasurer's safe, which they took to their town. The
next day Saratoga made an attack on Pratt in a fruitless effort to get the other
county property. By this time the more peaceable citizens asked the governor to
send militia to restore order. Gov. Martin sent Adjt.-Gen. Campbell and Col. W.
F. Hutchinson to the county. They stationed guards at both towns and allowed no
one to carry arms. Finally the supreme court handed down its decision and
ordered the records taken back to Iuka. Matters quieted down, but the county
seat contest was not yet forgotten, and in Feb., 1888, a petition was presented
to the commissioners asking for a special election to relocate the county seat.
The election was held on Feb. 29 of that year, and Pratt was the winning
candidate. The question was settled at last.
The first newspaper was the
Pratt County Press, established in 1878 by M. C. Davis and J. B. King. The first
school in the county was taught in Iuka in 1878 by Miss Laura Long.
The
county is divided into 18 townships: Banner, Carmi, Center, Elm, Gove, Grant,
Haynesville, Iuka, Lincoln, Logan, McClellan, McPherson, Naron, Paxon, Richland,
Saratoga, Springvale and Valley. The postoffices are Caro, Coats, Croft,
Cullison, Iuka, Lawndale, Olympia, Pratt, Preston and Sawyer. A branch of the
Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe R. R., which runs west from Wichita, enters on the
eastern border and terminates at Pratt. Another line of the same road enters in
the southeast and crosses the southern part of the county running west into
Kiowa county, with a branch south from Springdale into Barber county. The
Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific enters in the northeast and crosses southwest to
Pratt, thence into Kiowa county, and a branch of the Missouri Pacific enters in
the northeast and terminates at Iuka.
The surface is gently rolling
prairie, practically all tillable land. Bottom lands average one-fourth to one
mile in width and comprise about 8 per cent. of the area. Thin belts of timber
line the streams. The Ninnescah river has its source in the central part of the
county and flows east. The Chikaskia has its source in the south and flows
southeast into Barber county. Gypsum and sandstone are found in the south and
southwest.
In 1882 there were about 16,000 acres of land under
cultivation. In 1910 the acreage was 371,041, and the value of farm products was
$5,279,294. Corn, the largest field crop, brought $1,693,629; tame grasses,
$357,943; wild grasses, $256,925; oats, $174,773. The animals sold for slaughter
brought $2,196,761; poultry and eggs, $162,266.
The population in 1880
was 1,890; in 1890 it was 8,118. During the hard times of the '90s the
population fell off and in 1900 it was 7,085. In the last decade the increase
was about 57 per cent., the population for 1910 being 11,156. The assessed
valuation of property in that year was $25,705,667. The average wealth per
capita is $2,313, which is several hundred dollars above the average in the
state.
Contributed 2002 by Carolyn Ward, transcribed from Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, embracing events, institutions, industries, counties, cities, towns, prominent persons, etc. ... / with a supplementary volume devoted to selected personal history and reminiscence. Standard Pub. Co. Chicago: 1912. 3 v. in 4.: front., ill., ports.; 28 cm. Vols. I-II edited by Frank W. Blackmar, Volume II, Pages 495-498.
The actual birth year of Pratt County is recognized as 1876, although it had
been organized and bonds sold to unsuspecting buyers in 1873.
The county
was named after Caleb S. Pratt, a Bostonian and 2nd Lieutenant for the Union
during the Civil War. The State Legislature of Kansas, at a loss for names for
some 105 counties, chose to use those of officers of the Union side, bearing no
connection between the counties and the men they were named for.
There
were in the beginning, three contenders for the county seat. Saratoga, located
three miles to the east, Iuka, which held the seat until a redistricting of the
area and Pratt, the most centrally located.
Pratt was founded in 1884 on
a site that was once the hunting grounds of the Kiowa Indians.
When one
town seemed to have the advantage, the other two would join forces creating an
obstacle. In 1885, a horseman rode through the main street of Pratt shouting,
"Indians! Indians!". While some inhabitants had been warned of the scare, others
fled to town buildings for a day or two until the event proved to be unfounded.
January 6, 1886, proved to be the worst blizzard know to this county before
or since. An estimated 80 percent of the cattle froze to death along with a
large number of residents of the county.
An election finally established
Pratt as the bearer of the crown and the home of the county offices in 1888. It
was so well accepted as the county seat near the end of the first decade that
the citizens elected in 1909 to assume the debt of building a new courthouse.
One of the most colorful elements of Pratt history is the tale of "Skunk"
Johnson, an early fur trapper who had built a cave near the Ninnescah River as
his home. "Skunk" inherited his name when he was forced by the Indians to live
in his cave . . . and ate skunk oil to survive.
Pratt is located on the
Rock Island (Southern Pacific) Railroad.
Source: Unknown
Copyright © 1996 - The USGenWeb® Project, KSGenWeb, Pratt County
Design by Templates in Time
This page was last updated 09/04/2024